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It’s been just over a year since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had legalized abortions nationwide. The 2022 ruling freed up individual states to make their own decisions about a woman’s access to abortion. So far, 14 states have enacted near-total abortion bans.
Straight Arrow News contributor Star Parker describes how her own personal experiences have shaped her views and why she thinks there’s more work to be done to ban abortions.
Fifty years ago in 1973, the violent decision of Roe v. Wade was handed down by the United States Supreme Court that legalized abortion throughout our country. I was just a teenager when the fight for life began — a girl on the precipice of becoming a woman, and eventually a mom.
I got very lost in this decision, like many women did, to separate their marriage from sexual activity and personally ended up four times in an abortion clinic. You know, half a century is a long time but our past is not our destiny. As we celebrate the first anniversary of Roe’s overturn in June of last year, there is much celebration here in Washington, D.C., the first anniversary of a Dobbs world.
In a speech before pro-life groups recently, U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican leader in Congress, and a mom herself, quoted estimates that 181,000 lives have been born due to the recent victory of overturning Roe and giving us this Dobbs world. And while this, of course, gives us hope, there’s still a long road ahead and much work to be done.
The battle has moved to the states, and outside of extreme circumstances, abortions are now banned in 14 states. Another six have a ban after a certain number of weeks. Another five have moved toward protecting life. But they’re being sued. And so we’re looking now at battling it out in the courtrooms because many want abortion to be legal in our country.
